Six flats in Chilenje
Past the point a sheet stays tidy
Three tenants are fine on a sheet. At six, keeping it current becomes a weekly job of its own.
Notes for Zambian landlords
No. 11 · Tezeka compared with a spreadsheet
Updated September 2026
No. 11 · Comparison
When a rent spreadsheet stops being enough
Most landlords start with a sheet or a counter book: a column for each tenant, a row for each month, ticked when the money lands. It works for a while. Then a MoMo screenshot sits in WhatsApp with nothing tying it to the row that says paid, a total stops adding up, and at ZRA time you rebuild the year by scrolling.
In short
- A sheet never tells a tenant that rent is late
- The MoMo screenshot lives apart from the row that says paid
- A broken formula fails quietly, for months
- Bring your old sheet with you, nothing is retyped
02 · Side by side
The same month, kept two ways
In the counter book or sheet
- You tick the row when you remember to
- The MoMo screenshot stays in a WhatsApp chat
- A K200 shortfall hides inside the column total
- At ZRA time you rebuild the month by scrolling
In Tezeka
- Each payment is recorded the day the proof arrives
- The screenshot is kept with the payment it proves
- The K200 is flagged the same day, by name
- The month is already added up before the 14th
A spreadsheet does nothing on its own
A spreadsheet is a record of what you remembered to type. It does not send a reminder before rent is due. It does not know a payment screenshot exists until you find it and note it down. And it does not notice that a tenant paid K200 short until you add up the column and the total looks wrong.
Nothing crashes. A row just stays unticked because you were busy that week, and the gap only shows when the tenant is several weeks behind and the conversation is harder than it needed to be.
04 · How it works
One month at Kabwata Flats, in Tezeka
Your tenants keep paying the way they already do. Tezeka keeps the record from the same proof you would have pasted into a cell.
- 1 Sep
Chanda sends her MoMo screenshot on WhatsApp, as she always has.
- 1 Sep
It lands against Flat 2 for September, ready for you to confirm. Nothing is typed into a cell.
- 3 Sep
Mutale pays K200 short. It is flagged that day, not found in December.
- 5 Sep
Bwalya gets a reminder on schedule, whether or not you opened anything.
- 14 Oct
September is added up and ready for your ZRA return.
05 · Where this lives in Tezeka
Plate I
- 1
The date and mobile money reference for every payment
- 2
Marked paid only once you confirm it
- 3
Every confirmed payment counts toward the year
06 · Who this is for
Three landlords we had in mind
Handing over to an agent
About to give someone else the keys
A shared sheet with editable formulas is not the record you want someone else working from.
Living in Johannesburg, renting in Lusaka
Managing from another country
A sheet someone updates for you is only as good as their habits. Tezeka keeps the record either way.
07 · What changes
What you stop doing by hand
- i
Typing each payment against what was owed
- ii
Remembering who needs a reminder, and when
- iii
Rebuilding the year for your accountant
- iv
Scrolling WhatsApp to find last month’s proof
No. 0001
- Date
- Today
- Received from
- You
- For
- 1 unit
- Amount
- K99 a month
Counterfoil. Keep for your records
Start here
Start with the property you have
Solo is K99 a month for 1 unit. Your tenants keep paying you directly by MoMo, Airtel Money or bank transfer. Tezeka never touches your rent.
Can I bring my existing spreadsheet?
Yes. From the Growth plan up, you can import your payment history from a CSV file instead of starting from zero.
Is this harder to use than a spreadsheet?
It should mean less typing, not more. Tenants send their own proof, and matching happens for you instead of you entering a figure into a cell.
Is it worth it for one flat?
Even with one unit, a spreadsheet will not remind a tenant that rent is late while you are asleep. The value is not only about scale.
What happens to my old records?
Nothing is lost. Import what you have, and everything from then on is recorded as it happens.
Does a spreadsheet do anything Tezeka does not?
A spreadsheet is yours to reshape however you like. Tezeka trades some of that freedom for matching, reminders and a record that does not depend on you keeping it up to date.